‘This is our home’: Bat Cave fire chief reflects on resilience, unity after Helene

By TAYLOR THOMPSON

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    BAT CAVE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Despite the massive progress that has been made in recovery efforts since Hurricane Helene hit over ten months ago, some mountain communities still have a long road ahead.

In this week’s WNC Heroes, News 13 spoke with the fire chief for the Bat Cave Volunteer Fire Department.

Fire Chief Steve Freeman said the Bat Cave Volunteer Fire Department is the last fully volunteer-based fire department in Henderson County. He described Bat Cave as a remote area that has always been about neighbors helping neighbors.

Before Hurricane Helene, Freeman had 28 crew members. Now, he has 40.

Freeman said they knew the storm had the potential to be catastrophic, and that it could be as bad as the 1916 flood that devastated Bat Cave. This prompted them to knock on doors and urge people to evacuate.

“This is our home and we’re going to take care of each other,” Freeman said.

The fire chief said helicopters were evacuating the majority of their community, which left behind what he described as a ghost town.

Their work did not stop when the rain ended.

With no power for 33 days, Freeman and other first responders constantly walked up and down the river.

“We spent a lot of time making sure there weren’t people,” he said.

As time went on and residents were able to make it back to their homes, he said there was a connection between neighbors like never before.

“It doesn’t matter what your religion is, what your political beliefs are, or anything else. It just brought everybody together,” he said.

Progress in their community, however, has looked different than many others.

Freeman said that when driving into the Bat Cave area, there are still one-way roads without guardrails, which he says will likely continue for another six to eight months.

But being there every step of the way, Freeman has seen many strides made.

“A lot of people just couldn’t imagine how bad it was in the early days of it, but we celebrate when we get one lane back that we can get through,” he said.

Coming up on the one-year anniversary of the storm, Freeman said that for someone who lives in Bat Cave, it still feels like yesterday. But even with all the dump trucks and traffic jams, he said it gets better every day.

Looking back on what these last ten months have brought, Freeman said his mindset and the community’s mindset have completely changed. He explained how material things no longer matter to him, and it’s truly all about helping your neighbor.

“There’s nothing to put back there. There’s no way to build anything back, but it does present an opportunity to build back differently, but build back better,” he said.

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